It’s remarkable how much can change in a year.
One year ago today, the Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft after starting the season 3-9-1.
In came Kris Knoblauch, who in his first game as an NHL head coach led the Oilers to a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on November 13th. The rest was history, as the team went on to win 28 of 34 games from November 24th to February 19th and eventually came within just two goals of a Stanley Cup.
Now, 365 days later, the Islanders return to Edmonton, where they haven’t won since 2017, to face an Oilers team that is once again having some early season struggles.
At 7-7-1, these Oilers are in much better shape than the ones the Islanders faced a year ago. But they still haven’t quite gotten going: they have yet to string three wins together and seemed almost incapable of scoring until finally breaking through for a seven-goal barrage in Vancouver on Saturday.
The Islanders themselves have undergone significant changes since their last meetings with the Oilers. Gone is head coach Lane Lambert, replaced by Patrick Roy back in January.
Under Roy, things have been… mostly the same. They’ve tightened up their defensive play and collected more points under the new coach, but this is still a top-heavy, low-scoring team that’s very dependent on goaltending. Not that Roy would know anything about the importance of goaltending.
At 6-6-3, the Isles are in the same position as Edmonton, still muddling along at .500. The Oilers’ goal differential is -8, New York’s is -9. Both teams have been undone by underwhelming special teams: the Oilers’ powerplay and penalty kill rank 24th and 32nd, respectively, while the Islanders’ special teams are 28th and 30th.
The Islanders are also not at full strength. Already without Anthony Duclair, they learned on November 2nd that both Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech would be out for four to six weeks after sustaining upper-body injuries in the same game. Defenceman Alexander Romanov, listed as day-to-day, practiced with the team yesterday in Edmonton.
#Isles Injury Updates:
Mat Barzal: upper – 4-6 weeks (LTIR)
Adam Pelech: upper – 4-6 weeks (IR)
Mike Reilly: upper – day to day
Alex Romanov: upper – day to dayGrant Hutton and Samuel Bolduc have been recalled from Bridgeport.
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) November 2, 2024
Facing a team missing their best offensive player and an elite shutdown defenceman is a golden opportunity for an Oilers team that’s struggled with shaky goaltending and goal-scoring. Those absences loom even larger over the special teams battle, as getting to dodge Barzal’s speed and Pelech’s play disruption gives the Oilers a big break.
At the end of the day, tonight’s game could simply come down to goaltending. The Oilers broke through with a four-goal third period to defeat Vancouver 7-3 in their last game on Saturday, but that was thanks in large part to the shaky play of Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
The Oilers had better hope that shooting bump was real because they’ll be in tough against one of the best goalies on the planet in Ilya Sorokin. His .916 save percentage sits sixth in the league among goalies with at least nine starts this season.
Tonight’s game gets underway at 7:00, on Sportsnet West.
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